About the publication, and how to reach us.

Mr. Larkin (so called, though the Initials shall here suffice) has for many Years kept a Commonplace of his Reading, and is now persuaded — chiefly by the Encouragement of one or two Friends, and the Solitude of the Hours afforded by a Country Winter — to set down these Observations in a more publick Form. He pretends to no Learning beyond the ordinary, nor to any Acquaintance among the Authors here treated; the Notices contained herein are the Judgments of a private Person, freely offered, and not to be mistaken for Authority.

His chief Subjects are the modern Novel and Memoir, with such occasional Essays and Pieces in Verse as may engage his Attention. He confesses a Partiality for Sentences of some Length, for Authors but lately deceased or otherwise unfashionable, and for those Booksellers who still take the trouble to commend a Volume by their own Hand. He owns a settled Dislike of Cant in all its Forms, and of that Manner of Praise which speaks more of the Reviewer than of the Book.